If you’ve been walking down
Broadway lately, just a little bit south of Times Square you may have noticed
something out of the ordinary as though art and history were coming to life.
A collection of 18 life-sized
bronze sculptures by renowned sculptor Seward Johnson dazzle five blocks of
Broadway in a public art show titled Seward
Johnson in New York presented by the Garment District Alliance’s “Summer
Arts on the Plazas” program. The exhibition is divided into
three sub-categories that are titled Celebrating
the Familiar, Beyond the Frame,
and Icons Revisited all of which
include pieces created at different points in his career throughout the past 30
years.
With the series Celebrating the Familiar, Johnson
intelligently captures the daily life in America by portraying ordinary
individuals going about their business. Notable works from this series include Holding Out depicting a woman carrying a
heavy brown paper bag of groceries in one hand while balancing two white
shopping bags in the other. Another work from this series titled Frequent Flyers features two businessmen
are walking alongside each other with one man tilting his head with a curious
expression on his face as though he’s commenting on something interesting he’s
observed as his partner looks at him with interest in what he might be saying.
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| Embracing Peace |
The series Beyond the Frame is a charming ode to French Impressionist and
other great painters as Johnson takes scenes from some of the most celebrated
artworks of all time and puts them into a twenty-first century context. Johnson includes scenes from many
of Renoir’s paintings such as Dance in
the Country, Dance in the City,
or Dance at Bouvigal, all of which
feature couples dancing and are enchanting replicas of the original paintings.
Johnson also re-creates the scene from Manet’s Chez Pere Lathuille where a couple are spending the afternoon in an
outdoor café as the waiter looks on from a distance holding a teapot. Johnson
refers to his version as Eye of the
Beholder to capture the scene from the waiter’s point of view. Other
notable works from this series are God
Bless America inspired by Grant Wood’s iconic American Gothic painting depicting a farmer holding a pitchfork
with his wife standing next to him, and Monet,
Our Visiting Artist portraying one of the greatest painters of the era as
though he were visiting New York City for the first time and painting exactly
what he sees in front of him.
Johnson’s interest in politics and
pop culture clearly emerges through his Icons
Revisited series. Works from this series include a 1991 installation titled
Return Visit, featuring Abraham
Lincoln delivering the famous Gettysburg Address to a twentieth century man,
and the 2011 installation Forever Marilyn
of America’s most legendary and charismatic film star standing over a
subway grate with her white dress flowing in the wind as the train passes.
Perhaps the most notable work from
this series is Embracing Peace depicting
a sailor carrying roses and bending over to kiss a nurse re-creating Alfred
Eisenstaedt’s renowned photograph that graced the cover of Life Magazine on
August 14th 1945 celebrating Victory Over Japan Day marking the end of World
War II. A much larger 25-foot version of this sculpture has been recently
installed in the heart of Times Square to mark the 70th anniversary of the
victorious occasion.
Seward
Johnson in New York is presented on Broadway between 36th and 41st Streets,
and will be on view through Sept. 15.
